Low student turnout at Carapichaima Anglican

Although two maxi taxis have been provided and showed up for students at Carapichaima Anglican Primary School on Wednesday and Thursday, more has to be done said PRO of the school’s PTA Calisha Harry.

Harry said both the Anglican Board and the Ministry of Education needed to step up to ensure students were safe and comfortable.

The school had previously been deemed uninhabitable and students were to be temporarily relocated to the California Government Primary School. To facilitate this, the Education Ministry promised to provide two PTSC buses to transport the students between the two schools.

On Monday and Tuesday this week, however, those buses never turned up and frustrated students were forced to return home with their angry parents.

On Tuesday, Minister of Education Anthony Garcia said two maxi taxis were contracted to transport the children. Those maxi taxis did show up Wednesday and yesterday to transport the students.

Yesterday, Harry told Newsday the maxi taxis were arriving at 8.15 in the morning which was too late to take the children from Carapichaima to California.

She said they would have to arrive earlier to allow students to reach their new school on time.

"If anyone knows the area it is a far distance between the two schools. We are also waiting for another bus to come on board because when the full amount of students start to come out for school the two buses would not be enough.

"We are also calling on the Anglican Board to step in and do more for the school. Show some interest. We were also promised that the ministry would fix the UTT building at the corner of Waterloo and Brickfield roads to accommodate the students."

Harry said after officials from the ministry had discussions with the principal and the PTA, a contract was awarded to a contractor to fix the building.

She said the parents were told the contract would take four to six weeks to be completed.

"They never gave us a start date so we don’t know when it is expected to be completed. All we are saying to the heads, keep your promises to help the students of Carapichaima Anglican primary school.

"The Anglican Board is supposed to represent the parents but they are not doing what they are supposed to do. They are very silent on the matter and has stop taking our calls."

Harry said parents were trying to work with the ministry to get the building ready to accommodate the children.

She said there were several skilled parents who were willing to work with the contractor to get the UTT building in an order for the students.

“While there was a low turnout of students today (yesterday) we expect more students to come out to school soon and hopefully we can get the other bus on board to accommodate them,” Harry said.